BCC conference looks at the life of Cape Verde's first president

Sunday

Nov 18, 2012 at 12:01 AM

FALL RIVER — A conference on the legacy of Aristides Pereira, the first president of Cape Verde after his island nation secured its independence, brought former colleagues, friends and supporters to Bristol Community College on Saturday.

DON CUDDY

FALL RIVER — A conference on the legacy of Aristides Pereira, the first president of Cape Verde after his island nation secured its independence, brought former colleagues, friends and supporters to Bristol Community College on Saturday.

Pereira was 52 when he became president in 1975, an office he held until 1991, when he was defeated in the archipelago's first democratic multi-party election.

Speaking at the conference, Cape Verdean journalist and author Jose Vicente Lopes said that Pereira, who died last year, was not well known even to his own people. Lopes said his new book "Aristides Pereira: Minha Vida, Nossa Historia" will be a revelation for those interested in the character of the man who led Cape Verde in its struggle against colonialism and set his impoverished nation firmly on the path to stability and international recognition.

In collaborating with Pereira on the book, Lopes asked the former president how he would like to be remembered. "As a son of Cape Verde who did his best to give the people the dignity they deserve," Pereira relied.

Former U.S. Ambasador to Cape Verde Vernon Penner remembered Pereira as a man of great modesty.

"Today we see the arrogance of power; people with escorts and military staffs and cars with sirens," he said. "Pereira was a man without pretense," he said, who could be compared to George Washington in terms of his importance to his country.

Pereira was also a visionary, according to Penner, who looked beyond his own country and, acting as "an honest broker," began the dialogue that led to the end of the war in Angola.

Maria de Fátima Veiga, the current Cape Verdean Ambassador to the U.S., served as a minister in Pereira's government and remembered the guidance and advice she had received from the president. "We must also recognize the role he played in cementing relations between Cape Verde and the U.S.," she said.

The conference was followed by lunch, with music provided by Benvindo Cruz and then a visit to the adjacent Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery, which featured an exhibition of photographs of former President Pereira by his photographer, Ron Barboza, who grew up in New Bedford.

"For 36 years I have immersed myself in documenting, with my camera, the aches and pains of this growing nation; not only for myself but for posterity," Barboza said.